Description
With violent policing, inhumane detention and imprisonment, community surveillance and loss of civil rights, the criminal legal system is unjust; and it is crucial for social workers to understand and take steps toward change. Under the guise of helping adults in multiple correctional contexts, social workers have historically engaged in efforts that privilege the carceral system and reproduce its harmful apparatus that extends to families and communities. Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice and the Carceral State plots a path to change by using an anti-oppressive and transformative approach. Patricia O'Brien and Judith S. Willison critically examine strategies to shift punishment-centered practices to build collaborative partnerships and possibilities toward decarceration and individual and community power.
About the Author
Patricia O'Brien, PhD, MSW, is Associate Professor (retired) at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Nationally known for her advocacy and research on women in and out of prison, she published one of the first studies examining how women succeed in the community after release from incarceration. Judith S. Willison, PhD, MSW, LICSW, is Associate Professor in the Bridgewater State University School of Social Work. Her scholarship focuses on understanding the place of criminalized behavior within existing systems of social inequity and institutionalized white supremacy to support activist interventions.
Reviews
Anti-oppressive Social Work Practice and the Carceral State is a contribution that fills a significant gap. Increasingly there are calls for anti-oppressive social work, particularly related to carceral systems, and this book provides language and context. O'Brien and Willison have created a text for those who are new to the topic to begin to understand the important issues, and for someone who is familiar, to expand their knowledge. Anyone interested in anti-oppression should add this resource to their library. * Henrika McCoy, PhD, Associate Professor, Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago *
It's not easy to find space for anti-oppressive frameworks in a place that is created for and animated by oppression. And yet this space is in deep need of both humanity, for those who are currently locked in, and disassembled. O'Brien and Willison attend to both sides of this spectrum with wisdom, strategies for anti-oppressive social work practice, and some of the most important ethical considerations for this period in social work. The books attention to practice and ethics makes it invaluable to students and practitioners. * Elizabeth L. Beck, PhD, Professor, School of Social Work at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Georgia State University *
The social work profession is at a critical point where we must question our role in maintaining the carceral state and the conflicts this creates with our professed values. Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice and the Carceral State raises the important questions we must consider and provides some paths forward. If the profession does not address the questions raised in this important text, it risks moving towards irrelevancy. * Alan Dettlaff, Dean and Maconda Brown O'Connor Endowed Dean's Chair, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work *
Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice and the Carceral State delivers fully and dynamically on its stated promises. Patricia O'Brien and Judith Willison offer a creative and timely book that greatly expands the reader's grasp of the U.S. carceral state as a whole and as a set of parts. The contours and mechanisms of Its operations and unjust aspects are clearly illuminated through illustrations from the reports of people caught up in the bowels of the carceral state and from the reflections of experienced social work practitioners. * Barbara Levy Simon, PhD, Professor Emerita and Special Lecturer, Colombia School of Social Work *
Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice and the Carceral State stands out as a timely and practical book. * Ran Hu, Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190076757
Author Patricia O'Brien
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions(mm) 155mm * 236mm * 16mm
About the Author
Patricia O'Brien, PhD, MSW, is Associate Professor (retired) at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Nationally known for her advocacy and research on women in and out of prison, she published one of the first studies examining how women succeed in the community after release from incarceration. Judith S. Willison, PhD, MSW, LICSW, is Associate Professor in the Bridgewater State University School of Social Work. Her scholarship focuses on understanding the place of criminalized behavior within existing systems of social inequity and institutionalized white supremacy to support activist interventions.
Reviews
Anti-oppressive Social Work Practice and the Carceral State is a contribution that fills a significant gap. Increasingly there are calls for anti-oppressive social work, particularly related to carceral systems, and this book provides language and context. O'Brien and Willison have created a text for those who are new to the topic to begin to understand the important issues, and for someone who is familiar, to expand their knowledge. Anyone interested in anti-oppression should add this resource to their library. * Henrika McCoy, PhD, Associate Professor, Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago *
It's not easy to find space for anti-oppressive frameworks in a place that is created for and animated by oppression. And yet this space is in deep need of both humanity, for those who are currently locked in, and disassembled. O'Brien and Willison attend to both sides of this spectrum with wisdom, strategies for anti-oppressive social work practice, and some of the most important ethical considerations for this period in social work. The books attention to practice and ethics makes it invaluable to students and practitioners. * Elizabeth L. Beck, PhD, Professor, School of Social Work at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Georgia State University *
The social work profession is at a critical point where we must question our role in maintaining the carceral state and the conflicts this creates with our professed values. Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice and the Carceral State raises the important questions we must consider and provides some paths forward. If the profession does not address the questions raised in this important text, it risks moving towards irrelevancy. * Alan Dettlaff, Dean and Maconda Brown O'Connor Endowed Dean's Chair, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work *
Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice and the Carceral State delivers fully and dynamically on its stated promises. Patricia O'Brien and Judith Willison offer a creative and timely book that greatly expands the reader's grasp of the U.S. carceral state as a whole and as a set of parts. The contours and mechanisms of Its operations and unjust aspects are clearly illuminated through illustrations from the reports of people caught up in the bowels of the carceral state and from the reflections of experienced social work practitioners. * Barbara Levy Simon, PhD, Professor Emerita and Special Lecturer, Colombia School of Social Work *
Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice and the Carceral State stands out as a timely and practical book. * Ran Hu, Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190076757
Author Patricia O'Brien
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions(mm) 155mm * 236mm * 16mm
